Wave generators are often used for recreational purposes. Wave generators create one or more waves in a pool or the like, and people typically either play in the waves or use the waves for aquatic sports such as board sports. Aquatic board sports, such as surfing and boogie boarding, require that the waves be rideable. Enthusiasts in these types of sports often use wave generators for competition, practice and entertainment.
Existing wave generators typically use wave generating chambers to produce a wave that travels perpendicular to the wave generating apparatus. The wave is produced when the wave generating chambers (either one chamber or multiple chambers) are all activated simultaneously, resulting in the water being pushed away from the wave generating chambers, which then travels at an angle perpendicular to the chambers. The wave then travels away from the chamber until it reaches the opposite end of the pool, breaking at some point between the wave generating chamber and the opposite end of the pool. The waves that are created from these chambers, however, can only be ridden for only a short period of time and distance because after the wave is created, it begins to decrease in amplitude and quickly becomes unrideable. Japan App. No. 04-037314 (JPO Publication No. 05-202626) discloses a pool that produce waves that travel in a perpendicular direction from one side toward the other side of the pool. The side walls of the pool are in a fan shape to allow persons to ride the wave longer and avoid hitting the wall. This apparatus, however, only produces waves that travel perpendicularly away from generating apparatus until the wave reaches the opposite end of the pool. This apparatus attempts to provide for a longer ride on the wave by simply angling the walls in a fan shape, but does not compensate for the wave losing amplitude and strength.
The ring wave type of pool (U.S. Pat. No. 6,920,651) discloses an annular or “doughnut” shaped pool that contains wave generating paddles on the outer wall of the pool that push the water radially inward, from a deep outer diameter region to a shallow inner diameter region. The paddles actuate in a synchronous manner, one after the other, causing the water to circulate around the annulus. This synchronized pushing of the water inward toward a shallow region would create a small, ever-turning wave that follows the circular path of the pool. The waves would be small because paddles, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, could not displace a large, fast-moving and directed flow of water. The paddles essentially create minor, slow-moving displacements of the circulating water, leading to small waves at the shoreline, somewhat like the wake of a boat hitting the shore of a river or lake. Further, the angle of the waves to the shoreline would be largely dictated by the geometry of the structure. Specifically, the waves would necessarily follow the “pinwheel” shape shown in FIG. 1; waves could not be created that moved differently, such as substantially perpendicular to the outer surface of the island. Additionally, the waves would always be arc-shaped, not substantially straight-lines like most naturally occurring waves in the ocean. Also, the waves do not break and become rideable until they are a far distance from the wave generating paddle because the wave cannot break until it reaches the breakpoint on the floor of the pool, which is the peak of a long inclined slope on the floor of the pool. Therefore, this apparatus is extremely large with a significant portion of the water surface having no rideable wave. Indeed, users would be in danger if they did not stay close to shore, because they could be seriously injured by the paddles. In fact, if a user could not swim or for some reason sank to the bottom, they would tend to slide down the slope straight into the moving paddle. In sum, constructing and maintaining such an apparatus would be extremely expensive, with only small, non-realistic waves produced near the shore, all while presenting a serious risk of injury to users.
What is needed is an apparatus that overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art, including providing a rideable wave that compensates for the wave losing amplitude and strength as it moves across the pool.